Boss Mick McCarthy insists he isn’t envious of the high profile signings made by some of the Blues’ promotion rivals during the January transfer window.
While leaders Bournemouth stuck with their existing squad, second-placed Derby were busy during the window, signing Tom Ince, Jesse Lingard and Darren Bent on loan from Hull City, Manchester United and Aston Villa respectively and bringing in permanent additions Raul Albentosa from Eibar, Stephen Warnock from Leeds and Ryan Shotton from Stoke.
Middlesbrough in third recruited defender Tomas Kalas on loan from Chelsea and midfielder Adam Forshaw permanently from Wigan.
But McCarthy, who added Freddie Sears from Colchester for a fee of £100,000 and free agents Noel Hunt, Paddy Kenny and Dylan Connolly to his squad, says he’s not one to cast a covetous eye towards other clubs’ signings.
"I don’t do envy, not really. It’s really counterproductive, walking round and being envious of other people.
"And who’s to say they’re going to be better than we’ve got? When they've brought them in, are they going to fit in? Are they going to be as competitive as we are with players that they’ve brought in?
"You can gain something but you can certainly lose something as well. If you bring somebody in and he doesn’t really hit it off and you’ve left one out, you’ve got to go back to Plan A then.”
The Town boss, who celebrates his 56th birthday today, says such signings can increase expectancy: "Strangely enough, it does heap a bit of pressure on if you’re expected to do it and the players that you’ve brought in are going to galvanise things and ensure they get in the play-offs or the top two.
"But it doesn’t always work that when you move and it does add a little pressure. I’ve said all along we’re in the position with the lads that we’ve got and they’ve been terrific and I’ve no reason that they should be anything else in the run-in with 18 to go.”
McCarthy is more than content with his squad and has said he’ll utilise the emergency loan provision should he need it: "I’m happy with the lads I’ve got. And I had a word with them after the transfer window had closed.
"I said ‘Have a look around in the dressing room at who you’re sat here with and ask whether there are many better goalkeepers than the two we’ve got? Are there too many better full-backs around or centre-halves?
"‘Are there many better midfield players than we’ve got, or wide players who do the job that we want to do playing 4-4-2? And then have a look at your strikers. We’ve got the top scorer from last year, the leading goalscorer this year.
"‘We’ve got Hunty who has come in and scored three and really contributed already and Freddie, who has come in and settled in. So, have a look around and appreciate what you’ve got rather than envying what other people have done’. And that’s the way I try to be.”
Asked whether he felt his team are underdogs in the promotion race, he added: "We’ve got good players in our dressing room. Marcus is adhering to Financial Fair Play, that’s the way it is.
"So no, I think we’ve got a really good team which can compete with any of them. If anything [we’re] underdogs just because of the fact that we’re not spending any money, if that makes you an underdog.
"That doesn’t mean to say we’ve got worse players than them because we all know I’ve got shot of some players out of here who have cost a whole lot of money and didn’t contribute anything for me.
"The lads who have come in and cost nowt have got us into fourth, three points off the top. That’s where those players have got us to.
"I think there might be one or two envying us, how we’ve done it. There might be one or two going ‘Wow, we’ve spent this and we’re paying these people that and look at that mob down the road who are doing particularly well’.”